Note: Since this post, the Government of Pakistan has notified BlackBerry that it has extended its shutdown order from November 30 to December 30. BlackBerry will delay its exit from the Pakistan market until then.

Hi Morgan (and others interested in options). Wanted to wait for the weekend to ask so I wouldn't clutter the board with OT items during our busy time with BBRY.

I was thinking of starting on an options (Call) writing strategy as you've eluded to recently using my existing HALO shares. What prices seems attractive at this time to consider? I see that there are January $19 calls for Bid $1.05 - Ask $1.55 and $20 calls for Bid $0.75 - Ask $1.20 ...or should I aim for higher strike prices and/or a longer time frame...any thoughts?

Sorry for the delay, had a busy weekend. You are entering into the most profitable time in the market, when the fiscal quarter for funds ends, as of tomorrow, December through to at least the end of January is a very good time to hold stock. HALO is near its recent highs having regained all of its losses from the last Q report so the stock is back above its 50-dma, its 200-dma and ready to lead this market higher. The only thing holding HALO back is Hilary C. So if you really need to raise a buck, do something within the next 4 - 7 weeks and at the $ 20.00 strike so that you might be able to re-acquire the stock back if you lose it. I write the calls when the stock is rallying hard, so time for that, I then look at the charts to see how I will get it back later, and then sell naked puts to re-acquire the stock if I lose it.

If we look back at BBRY, we know that funds ended their selling on the last day of trading in September, they will do the same today and then we setup for a sustained rally for the next 2 months at least, so this process goes for BBRY too. GL

No worries about the delay in replying...Sundays are football and family day

Your insight is always valued and appreciated. I do want to hang on to my HALO shares as long as possible but I do need to free up some funds for a new condo (unlike where you're located, there isn't as much lake front property to invest in in Alberta so I have to find other real estate plays to diversify with). I'm trying to decide whether to focus on Jan or Mar calls...

Now let's hope that Blackberry's SP will go on a tear so we can write calls on it as well!

...BTW, I have one of these in my cellar to uncork for the $100 party...any Port enthusiasts who might want to join in?

". . . VTech said in a statement that about 5 million customer accounts and related children’s’ profiles worldwide were affected. It did not break out how many profiles belonged to parents and how many to children. News site Motherboard reported that data belonging to some 4.8 million parents and more than 200,000 children was taken. . . "

Well, was my bet a few days ago. End of Quarter, entering Christmas season, post black Friday (OT: what a bad idea to use this in France this year, BTW) ... I'll assume this will be in sync with other countries launch ... Maybe France ? Who knows (not me) ...

BlackBerry Ltd. is standing firm on its promise to close its operations in Pakistan rather than accept that country’s demands for “unfettered” access to its BES servers, even after a one-month delay in the government’s deadline.

The Waterloo, Ont.-smartphone company said in a blog post Monday that it will continue to operate in Pakistan until Dec. 30 as a result of a one-month extension to a compliance order issued by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority in July.

BlackBerry had said previously that it would pull out of Pakistan rather than comply with a demand for full access to content on its BlackBerry Enterprise Service by Nov. 30.

The company says the Pakistani government wants the ability to monitor all traffic in the country, including every BES email and BES BBM. BES communications are routed through the company’s servers in Canada.

BlackBerry says it’s willing to work with Pakistani authorities to protect public safety, but that the privacy of its customers is paramount and something on which it won’t compromise.

BlackBerry operations chief Marty Beard said in a blog post that the company recognizes the need to co-operate with lawful government investigations of criminal activity, but it has never permitted wholesale access to BlackBerry servers.

The company has built its reputation on security, buying up specialized software firms and marketing its phones, including the new Priv, on their privacy features.

Laura Tribe, a digital rights expert with the OpenMedia advocacy group, said it was encouraging that BlackBerry and other companies are standing up for users’ privacy in the face of demands from governments.

“They’re actually willing to draw a line in the sand somewhere to not undermine the technologies that we need to keep our information safe,” she said.

This isn’t the first time BlackBerry has faced a potential ban.

India and several other countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, threatened to ban BlackBerry in 2010 because of the company’s refusal to hand over control of customer data.

Like Pakistan is doing now, India cited public safety and its efforts to combat militants in the wake of the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, its financial capital, that killed 166 people. Indian officials said the 10 heavily armed gunmen who rampaged through the city used mobile phones to co-ordinate the attack.

Pressure eased after BlackBerry, then Research in Motion, was able to convince each country to comply with its existing lawful access policies.

SEOUL— Samsung Electronics Co.’s new mobile chief offers a stark contrast to J.K. Shin, the hard-charging executive who led the world’s biggest smartphone-maker through a period of explosive growth but also one marked by difficulty.

On Tuesday, the South Korean tech giant said 54-year-old D.J. Koh, who was in charge of Samsung’s mobile research and development, would be promoted to mobile chief. Mr. Koh is widely credited within Samsung as the executive who laid the groundwork for some of the mobile division’s recent advances in software and services including the mobile payment system Samsung Pay and enterprise security platform, Knox.

In contrast to the 59-year-old Mr. Shin, who will remain as a co-chief executive of Samsung, Mr. Koh is described by employees as a predictable, realistic and reasonable executive who is hardworking and direct.

“He’s not a screamer,” said one Samsung executive, who has worked closely with Mr. Koh. Instead, Mr. Koh has climbed the ranks in part by being well-liked and keeps a very low profile, even in South Korean business circles, said the executive.

The decision to elevate Mr. Koh suggests a willingness by Samsung to make software and services a more important part of selling its hardware, as it feels the competitive squeeze from its smartphone rivals.

“Handsets are being commoditized, and because of this, I think Samsung needs to focus on R&D more,” said Daniel Kim, an analyst at Macquarie.

Samsung, which declined to make Messrs Koh and Shin available for comment, announced the reshuffle as part of its annual year-end management shake-up.

In a statement, Samsung said Mr. Shin and another co-chief executive who heads the consumer electronics business, B.K. Yoon, would step back from day-to-day duties.

The management change comes at a time of profound challenges for Samsung, which is battling a resurgent Apple Inc. in the high-end smartphone market and a raft of budget Chinese and Indian smartphone makers in the low end.

The company’s decision to take Mr. Shin out of his day-to-day role follows a bruising two years for Samsung’s mobile division. Last year’s update of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S smartphone series flopped with consumers, and Mr. Shin fumbled the release of this year’s more popular update, the Galaxy S6 and its curved-screen companion the Galaxy S6 Edge.

Mr. Shin misread demand for the devices, producing too few Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones and too many of the non-curved screen edition. That led to a 38% decline in Samsung’s mobile profit in the second quarter, when the phones were released. Samsung was only able to show a rebound in the third quarter by moving up the release of another smartphone by several weeks and adding a new supersized version of the Galaxy S6 Edge.

Mr. Koh, the new mobile chief, will take over leadership of the mobile divison’s research and development, product planning, design, manufacturing and sales and marketing functions from Mr. Shin.

Mr. Koh joined Samsung right after graduating from South Korea’s Sungkyunkwan University in 1984, at a time when the company was a domestic-focused brand churning out low-end televisions and cassette decks.

Mr. Koh later earned a master’s degree at the University of Sussex in the U.K. and is described as far more comfortable in English conversation than his predecessor.

Between 2000 and 2006, Mr. Koh was based in Europe as a research executive at Samsung before he formally joined the mobile unit, just before the launch of Apple’s first iPhone. Mr. Koh has been involved in mobile product planning and R&D since.

Samsung’s management change also hinted at the conglomerate’s renewed focus on the health care business ahead of an expected leadership succession to heir apparent Lee Jae-yong, who has stepped up his presence in managing the business empire while his father remains ill.

Jun Dong-soo, who oversaw the initial public offering of Samsung’s information-technology service unit Samsung SDS Co. last year as its chief executive, was reassigned to head Samsung Electronics’s medical-equipment unit.

Meanwhile, Mr. Lee’s sister, Lee Seo-hyun, was promoted to president of the fashion group at Samsung C&T Corp., the de facto holding company of the Samsung companies. Samsung C&T oversees a range of businesses, from construction to fashion.

ORONTO (Reuters) - A Canadian start-up backed by one of BlackBerry's founders unveiled a technology on Tuesday for tracking wireless signals that it says can be used for detecting intruders, managing crowds or finding victims of natural disasters.

Cognitive Systems Corp said its Amera technology senses motion in physical space by detecting small changes in the wireless signals that invisibly connect smartphones and other devices to broader networks.

"What we're building is essentially a camera for RF (radio frequency) signals and trying to understand what those signals mean," said Cognitive co-founder Taj Manku.

The closely held company is largely backed by Mike Lazaridis' Quantum Valley Investments fund, which aims to help bring breakthrough technologies to market.

Lazaridis is best known for co-founding the company that became BlackBerry Ltd (BB.TO) and developing its namesake smartphone. He has since left the company to focus on his own projects.

Cognitive said it has teamed up with one unnamed partner to develop a home security and monitoring product for mid-2016 launch. The 50-employee company is also weighing targeting a second market segment by the end of next year.

Engineers at the start-up designed their own chip for the product, which features four wireless receivers and flexible processors that can switch quickly between different functions.

The company, based in BlackBerry's hometown of Waterloo, Ontario, said it has secured three core patents in the United States and Europe, with around 20 more pending.